Lately some Republicans have been taking aim at signage for the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. This month, Schock introduced a bill, the "End the Stimulus Advertisement Act," to prohibit them.

Question for Rep. Schock: how much taxpayers' money are we going to waste doing a politicized investigation of how much taxpayers' money was spent on signs? Signs that cost about 0.07% of the total stimulus spending? Signs that are pretty much the same as the "Your Tax Dollars at Work" signs that get put up for every government project? Signs that are actually creating some work for people out there:

Where do Republicans think the signs come from, asked Eddie Vale, political communications director for the AFL-CIO. "There isn't a magical road sign unicorn that brings them. They're manufactured, that is, building and placing the signs also create jobs."

At Western Remac Inc. in west suburban Woodridge, president Mike Conoscenti said it had made and sold about 100 Recovery Act signs -- and he appreciates the work. "In this day and age, everything is extremely competitive in pricing. Work is down for us across the board, our margins are extremely tight, and we're happy for anything that we can get."

How much money are we going to spend to find out that we didn't spend very much money on these signs? How much money are we going to spend printing and distributing and contemplating the "End the Stimulus Advertisement Act", which will probably go nowhere, and be a bigger waste of time and money than the signs?

For my conservative friends: don't you ever read a story like this and recognize, deep down in your heart, that this constant artificial outrage over trivia is manufactured to keep you riled up?

And are you equally outraged that taxpayers' money was spent putting up signs memorializing the Ronald Reagan Memorial Tollway?